Budget:
My budget for this system is around $2200-2650 (2650 being absolute max). This is only for the PC itself. I will be purchasing the monitors and peripherals separately.

Expectations:
- A fast-booting, cool and quite running machine.
- Case-wise, simple is best in my opinion. Don't need or want flashing lights and such. Clean looks; great air flow cooling.
- Great processor, memory, and GPU a must. (would like to go with the 680 4GB with future intentions to SLI the card).

Usage:
-Extreme gaming capabilities. Playing Diablo III, Guild Wars 2, Next Gen FPS games, etc. want to be able to run games on highest settings.

-Able to process many applications simultaneously without memory or processor constraints.

Special Needs:
Would like to avoid water cooled systems, I don't want to worry about that maintenance. I don't mind adding more fans in an effort to keep things running cool. I want my system to run cool and quietly.

Anyways, here is a build I came up with. Please let me know what you think. I plan to order within the next few weeks. Cheers!

Hi Stealth1984.....That is a nice build, but I would use a different case. The 300R has a single 120mm fan feeding air into it. You could add fans, but that would be more money and noise.

Go with at least the 500R case, with 2x 120mm fans in front and a 200mm fan on the side panel feeding air over the cards and mobo. We always recommend the HafX case for tops in cooling. Its front 230mm fan's LED can be turned off. It is the best.

To save a few hundred dollars you might consider the gtx670. It's performance is very close to the 680's for alot less money. You didn't mention monitor size or resolution but a single 670/680 on a 23" at 1920x1080 will play games like BF3, Metro2033, Crysis warhead on high settings, not maxed out settings. Sli would be needed for that which you did mention.

bprat, thank you very much for all your time and help. You seem to be quite the jack of all trades on these boards :P

Both of these builds look great. I am going to be running the PC on dual ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" monitors and a friend of mine suggested the 680 4GB card. Honestly I don't know a lot about GPUs, but I wanted something that wouldn't become quickly outdated. I am not the type of user who likes to swap components out every 6 months to stay up with the latest and greatest.

With that being said, would you recommend going with a different card setup in SLI? If it meant spending a little more now to get more bang for my buck in the long run, I guess I could manage it. Doing an SLI setup myself down the road isn't something I feel comfortable with. By all means given the fact I want to do a lot of gaming and editing work, what would you suggest?

Everything else makes a lot of sense and looks great. Thanks again for your time!

If the budget allows, and it does avoid work down the road and gives you great gaming out of the box, I would add another gtx 670 vram to the second build. The X79 will play real nice with your editing and the 670's in sli are about $400-500 cheaper then sli 680's. The 680's do give a 5-10 % better frame rate, but only you can decide if the extra money is worth it.

The 4gb vram doesn't seem to do much right now. Reputable sites that bench the cards have only found Skyrim, heavily modded with texture mods, any benefit at all. A couple of years from now?? Who knows. Some go 4gb vram as a "just-in-case" scenario. But in a year or two a new generation card will be out, so its hit and miss.

Sli 670/680 on a your dual monitor will max most games, but some will dip into the 50 fps range, which is still great gaming. Just that some want ultra settings with 60 + fps at all times and that can get expensive. That's if you game on both which I have never gotten into. I would rather a single myself, but that's just me.

As the price tag goes over $3000, have you considered the ODE level 4 for $2499. It has the sli 670. Doesn't have the X79 and only 8GB ram but ram is cheap to add. The Vortex 240mm rad cpu cooler isn't true water cooling. It's a sealed unit with zero maintenance.

As the price tag goes over $3000, have you considered the ODE level 4 for $2499.Â It has the sli 670.Â Doesn't have the X79 and only 8GB ram but ram is cheap to add.Â The Vortex 240mm rad cpu cooler isn't true water cooling.Â It's a sealed unit with zero maintenance.

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Just another way to go .Â

Haha, its like you read my mind. ODE level 4 is certainly the best choice from a financial standpoint, but I am still leaning towards the second configuration you listed.

Another question that came to me was, how hard will it be to SLI a GTX 670 4GB down the road? As much I as I want to, I just can't justify the $3,000 price tag of upgrading to the 670 GTX 2GB SLI right now. As it is probably obvious at this point, I don't have a lot of computer knowledge from a hardware standpoint. Is adding an extra 670GTX 4GB card say a year or two down the road something I could do myself? If it is as simple as plug in the hardware and play then no worries of course.

If trying to do an SLI upgrade myself is going to be too difficult I may just go with the ODE out of convenience. I feel so torn between the two at the moment :p

Adding another card in sli is very easy. It just slips into the next PCIex16 slot, plug in the 2x 6pin psu plugs, connect the bridge cable that connects the two and set it up in Nividia control panel with a couple of clicks of the mouse. That's it.

In all reality, in a year or two new cards will probably be out that beats the 670/680 line and those will be the new ones to have. But, then the 670's will have dropped in price....Maybe.

A single 670 will give you great gaming. Its all about $$$ and expectations.

If it was me, I agree and would go with the second build, the X79 build. It is better for your needs, photoshop, etc. and a single video card is very good. If this was strictly a gaming rig then the ODE 4 would be my pick.

Alrighty, well it looks like I have all the information I need to make my decision. Moving back to the states from Asia in less than a month. Will be ordering in 2 weeks. I will post one final config before I actually place my order to make sure everything is right. Thanks again for all the help, feel like I am buying with confidence now :D

I wanted to ask one more thing in regards to the build... I really don't like the looks of the Cooler Master 942 HAF X case. I know it is one of the best air cooling towers on the market. However, the looks of the case is a bit too much for my taste. With that being said, I really want to stay fan cooling only. I very much like the looks of Halestorm and Slade cases. Is there anything else that offers comparable cooling that looks sleek and simple?

Build in its current form:

Config: 706332
Total Price with Instant Savings: $2,708.00

Changed the mobo around because I wanted the built-in wifi feature as opposed to adding a card.

The Hailstorm is primarily for full water cooling and the 550D will not fit the Noctua D14 if that's what you meant for fan cooling. Its really all fan cooling, even stage 6 water.

The 600T and 650D both are sleek looking in my opinion and come with front 200mm and top 200mm fans for very good cooling. The 500R case is nice and has 2x 120mm fans in front and a 200mm on side panel to blow air right on the video cards and mobo area.

The Slade 550D won't hold the D14, but if you went with the Vortex 240mm cooler, DS would mount it to the top to give the case top fan cooling with the rads 2 fans. The Slade is rated better than I would've thought with its small fans.

Alright, I am going to pull the trigger and order my system in the next couple days. Still feeling really torn between the following builds:

706332, 711189, and the ODE lvl 4.

I am willing to spend the extra $200 now and SLI the card say a year or two down the road if the custom build has significant more longevity in terms of upgrade ability. Don't really need or want the Blu-ray player which comes with the ODE, but that is just a small thing.

Couple questions that might help make the decision easier.

1. Will the 800w on the ODE power supply be enough to cover future GPU sli upgrades?

2. When wanting to add more memory, can I purchase any memory regardless of speed or manufacturer and expect it to be able to work with the memory coming from DS?

3. Are there huge differences between the 1x (1TB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/Samsung (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)versus the 1TB black edition HDD?

Would really appreciate some final insight before I make the decision as this is a fairly large financial commitment for me. Also, thanks again bprat for all you do on these forums. Users like myself are forever indebted to you.

Here's my thought....The ODE 4 is the best bang for the buck of all 3 configs. You're pretty much getting almost everything for $200 less than the other two, except no X79 platform.

The first build, 706332, has the X79 for photoshop, etc, but only a single 670. For dual monitor gaming if that is still your wish, you won't be happy for the gaming you want. This one is 'out'.

The second build, 711189, is real nice with the sli 670 FTW oc'd versions. But I would change the cpu cooler to the Vortex 240mm . They mount it to the top and give that case better cooling. I stilll like the HafX case the best but you can't warm up to it, so the 550D with the added radiator/fans to the top will help.

Here's a config to confuse you more but is a combo of the first one with X79 quad channel for the photoshop and the second build with the case you like and sli 670FTW oc'd. It's another $100 but has it all.

If this messes with your budget too much, and the extra $100 just kicks it over the edge, then drop to a single 670 and save $400 off this. For single monitor it will be great with single 670, If dual monitor struggles with what you want you can always add another later.

For the budget, the ODE 4 is very tough to beat. Other than X79, it does it all. A higher budget, above $2500, does give you more options.

Any of these configs are great.

The 800w should be fine. DS uses it for alot of sli builds. Future cards if the trend continues will be even more energy smart. You're actaully better off going with the 750HX for another $50 if in the budget. The 750HX has a higher efficiency rating, 90% vs 80%, giving you more juice potentialy, and a 7 year warranty. But the 800w will work.

The 1TD black HDD is faster I believe but they are all fast, so for me they're all good.

Ooops...This config should be stage 1 oc'ing. DS only does stage 1 for the 3820.

That's the first I heard of it. We have said for a long time that the 800w and 750hx just make it for sli and the 1050hx for sli is a safer way to go, but DS has been building sli's with the 800w for a long time and that is what customers come back with when we suggest it. My first couple of configs in this thread did have the 1050HX.

I got away from pushing the 1050HX for sli because of builds DS does offer with it. Looks like I'll be going back to it.

Unless the X79 is the added problem, I can't say. Or, the FTW oc'd 670's is too much. If the X79 chipset or oc'd 670 is the difference, which I doubt, then a 800w would be too close for any sli build in my opinion in which case the ODE 4 would be borderline.

Ask them on the phone to clarify and let us know. Lots of builds with sli and 800w have been done unless they were all changed to 1000w and nobody got back to the forums.

If you have to up the psu, then maybe dropping to the standard gtx670's and not the FTW oc'd version will help balance the cost, saving $60.

I would still be curious as to what the problem is. If the 800w doesn't make it for your build, then that would change the help I give to others, even the ODE 4. In fact, I think the 1050HX is the way for any sli rig.

Sorry for the mixup on my part.

Either way, you do have an awesome rig. Just a small bump in the road.

You can buy a desktop that will max everything for the next 2-3 years for $2500 and will hold up way better over time. Buy a tablet if you need common portability. Lugging a 17 inch laptop around is the opposite of portable. Gaming laptops make the most sense for people who travel a lot for work, not really for students.

That said, if you're dead set on a laptop, you can save some money on the RAM (scale it back to 16gb at least). Would keep the top of the line GPU, but I've never seen a laptop gpu not degrade over time. Maybe the new stuff runs cooler and is different. However, if you're just playing mmorpgs, you might be able to get away with a cheaper GPU.

Was able to step down the cards to the non OC'd version while upgrading to the 1050W PSU so the price increase was minimal. Apparently it was the combination of the X79 and GPU SLI that could cause potential problems. The 800W might have been enough, but it would be a close call.

Best bet is to promote the 1050W PSU on future SLI builds IMO.

Order has been approved and currently in stage 1!!

Thanks again for all the help bprat. I just might name this rig after you

Yeah, he highjacked your thread. Must be from all the excitement of reading your builds.

So glad it worked out and ,yes, the 1050HX or equivalant for sli is the way to go. If its close with X79 and oc'd cards then too close for me with any sli. This little blip ended up giving you a healthier rig.

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